


MIDNIGHT MOTHER ISSUE 3: BLOOD OF THE NILE

by cellsinterlinked, SakuraWindChime



Series: MIDNIGHT MOTHER: A 10 Issue Series [3]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Archaeology, Backstory, Epic Battles, Established Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Established Relationship, Fic Lore, Injury, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:07:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29828826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cellsinterlinked/pseuds/cellsinterlinked, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraWindChime/pseuds/SakuraWindChime
Summary: Spurned by new evidence, Yuuri and Viktor travel to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, where they hope they will find the Blackheart they need. As they make their way inside a recently discovered tomb, they discover the origins of Blackheart... and the destruction and pain it has brought along the way.Part 3 of the the globe-trotting, century-crossing Vampire AU.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Series: MIDNIGHT MOTHER: A 10 Issue Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663816
Kudos: 2





	MIDNIGHT MOTHER ISSUE 3: BLOOD OF THE NILE

**Author's Note:**

> Story by cellsinterlinked & SakuraWindChime  
> Script by cellsinterlinked  
> Historical Research (and costume design :P) by SakuraWindChime
> 
> OP indicates Off-Panel  
> Text within indicates something spoken in a foreign language

**PAGE ONE**

1.1  
Wide shot. Dead of night, but a full moon in the corner illuminates everything with black rays of moonlight, including the Pyramids of Giza and surrounding desert.

CAPTION: This isn’t the first time we’ve been here. In this country, I mean.  
CAPTION: Giuseppe Stahr’s book on ‘The Night Men’ talked about persistent rumours at the time mentioning that Blackheart may have originated in Northern Africa.   
CAPTION: We looked around for a year and found nothing. So we left and thought nothing of it.

1.2  
A Ford Model T in the distance rolls along a desert road, kicking up a small dust trail in its wake. The hills of the Valley of The Kings awaits in the near distance.

CAPTION: The book mentioned a legend, which said that Blackheart was extracted from the blood of Egyptian gods by greedy humans. And for this...

1.3  
Close-up of Viktor’s hand on the parking brake. Yuuri’s hand lays on top of it.

CAPTION: They cursed both humans and vampire.

1.4  
In the foreground, Yuuri and Viktor stand in front of the jeep, admiring something off-screen with a sense of quiet awe. Viktor is dressed in a white cotton shirt with light linen trousers, held up with suspenders. Yuuri wears light blue trousers, and a jacket to match.

CAPTION: When we heard of the recent discovery of the tomb, we both had the same question.  
CAPTION: Could this be the missing key to Blackheart?

1.5  
From behind them, we see the entrance to Pharaoh’s tomb.

CAPTION: And so, 12 years later, we came back to see for ourselves.  
VIKTOR: I know that face. It’s your concerned face. What are you thinking about?  
YUURI: I’ve read things about this curse. From the other tomb they found.  
VIKTOR: I think it’s a bit late to worry about us getting cursed.  
YUURI: Maybe. Let’s go.  


**PAGE TWO**

2.1  
Wide shot from above. They walk towards the entrance of the tomb. We see the majesty of the Valley of the Kings surround them, the arid landscape, the dips and rises of the hills, drenched in bright moonlight.

YUURI: Watch out for guards.  
VIKTOR: I already took care of them.  
YUURI: What? What did you do to them?  
VIKTOR: Nothing untoward… I met them at their favourite bar last night with a handful of cash and suggested they treat themselves. Right now they’re probably at a—

2.2  
Closer in, in front of them. Yuuri collapses to the sand, his arms barely cushioning him and propping him up. He looks exhausted. Viktor turns, panicking.

VIKTOR:Yuuri!  
YUURI: I don’t... feel so...

2.3  
Viktor holds Yuuri by the shoulders as he kneels next to him, beads of sweat on his forehead. Yuuri clutches his head, slowly getting up.

VIKTOR: What’s wrong? Are you okay?  
YUURI: I’m fine... I just...  
YUURI: Feel so tired suddenly.

2.4  
Yuuri is now stood up, balancing himself, confused. Viktor holds his left hand as he finishes helping him up.

VIKTOR: Do you need to go back?  
YUURI: No, no. We’ve come all this way. We can’t go back now. I’ll be alright.  
VIKTOR: Okay...

2.4b  
Close-up of a torch being lit.

2.5   
Entrance of the tomb, Yuuri and Viktor walk in, Viktor brandishing the torch, the dancing flame lighting both of them.  


**PAGE THREE**

3.1  
They both face down a dark, claustrophobic corridor. Viktor leads the way, holding the torch right ahead as if keeping the dark at bay. In the background, the last vestiges of moonlight through the entrance way.

3.2  
The torchlight now shows the larger room they have entered, the antechamber. The gold plaster walls are decorated with Egyptian illustrations, frescos, depicting history through symbols and dark figures. Across the chamber, we see chunky furniture, statues of canine-headed gods. Like an abandoned warehouse of royal Egyptian opulence.

YUURI: Wow…

3.3  
Viktor looks over his shoulder at Yuuri and smirks. Yuuri looks incredibly unimpressed.

VIKTOR: Try not to make too much noise. Wouldn’t want to wake anyone up now.  
YUURI: Really not the time.

3.4  
Close on Viktor as he kneels, holding the torch close to the floor as he examines the items scattered about. With his other hand, he scrapes sand and dust off of the furniture with a small pocket knife.

VIKTOR: I’m afraid our archeological friends might have cleared most of the good stuff out.  
VIKTOR: Though, I’m beginning to have my doubts that there’s anything here to see.

3.5  
As Viktor investigates one of the statues in the background, Yuuri, eyes closed and sighing, leans his hand on a wall.

YUURI: Hang on... let me just... take a second...  


**PAGE FOUR**

4.1  
Close-up of Yuuri’s hand as it pushes a plate into the wall.

SFX: CLICK  
YUURI: Woah!

4.2  
A secret door slides down, Yuuri falls backwards, tripping over himself. 

SFX: RUMBLE  
YUURI: Wh-what?!

4.3  
Through the doorway, we see Yuuri on the floor. Viktor peaks in, perplexed.

VIKTOR: Interesting.

4.4  
Viktor, gently smiling, takes Yuuri’s hand as he helps him up, Yuuri rubs his butt.

VIKTOR: It seems like you’re a natural-born archeologist.  
YUURI: Seems so, whether I want to be or not.

4.5  
They are both now past the doorway, exploring this mysterious corridor, flanked by walls of crumbling sedimentary rock, itself punctuated with sections of built up plaster bearing illustrations, some hieroglyphics. This place is unfinished, and abandoned.

VIKTOR: Guessing the other lot weren’t as lucky as us in finding this place.  
VIKTOR: Not that they would have found all that much it seems.

4.6  
Viktor looks over his shoulder at Yuuri, leaning once more on the wall.

VIKTOR: Yuuri?  
YUURI: I don’t understand what’s happening to me... so tired...  
VIKTOR: We can still go back!  
YUURI: No... no, not now. Not until we find something.

 **PAGE FIVE**

5.1  
Viktor goes to Yuuri to hold him. Yuuri looks up, pointing at something.

VIKTOR: I don’t know what’s happening but I don’t like it.   
VIKTOR: I’m getting you out of here.  
YUURI: Wait, look!

5.2  
Viktor, still holding Yuuri, raises the torch closer as he looks.

VIKTOR: Wait...

5.3  
Wide shot. We see a mural on the wall, two pictures side-by-side, the first depicting a tree next to a river, its black veins flowing through it. The black inside leaks into a pot, as if bleeding. The second shows a Pharaoh drinking from the pot.

5.4  
Another painting next to it, this time showing the Pharaoh grown larger, more imposing, a noticeable black outline around him.

VIKTOR: It can’t be...

5.5  
Close on Viktor, now serious and engaged, concentrating on the murals. Yuuri, still tired but fighting through it, stands close next to him, also observing the mural.

VIKTOR: Midnight Mother.  
YUURI: But there’s only the black liquid, which is Blackheart, right? Shouldn’t there be vampire blood too?  
VIKTOR: Great minds...

  


**PAGE SIX**

6.1  
Behind him, as Viktor turns around to face something behind us.

VIKTOR: There’s more here.

6.2  
The painting depicts a black pool, with a stem at the bottom leading into large jagged black circular forms, stacked together in mounds.

YUURI (OP): What are those?  
VIKTOR (OP): They look like... I think stones?

6.3  
On Viktor, harsh contrast from the light, as realisation dawns.

VIKTOR: But if they’re from the pool, they must also be Blackheart.

6.4  
The darkness looms around them. Yuuri holds himself up on a wall. Both examine the paintings.

YUURI: How can they also be stones?  
VIKTOR: I don’t… know.  
VIKTOR: I don’t even know why they’d need to be stones…  
YUURI: Perhaps… it would make it easier to move around!

6.5  
Close on one of the black stones.

VIKTOR (OP): And if they’re easier to move around, who knows where else in the world they ended up!

6.6  
Yuuri places a hand on Viktor’s shoulder, smiling. Viktor holds Yuuri’s hand with his free hand, his eyes closed as he lets the hope flow through him, holding a gentle smile.

YUURI: So that must mean it must still be out there.   
YUURI: If there were so many, it can’t all be gone.  
VIKTOR: Yuuri… my darling…

**PAGE SEVEN**

7.1  
A hand, long and thin, emerges from the ground. In the background, Viktor and Yuuri step back, Viktor gently pushing Yuuri back with his arm.

VIKTOR: What the–  
VIKTOR: Get back!

7.2  
The hand is followed by the rest of the body as it crawls out, pulling itself out of the ground. Its head and face, covered by a thin linen hood which leads into a cloak, is skeletal.

7.3  
The creature now stands with its back to us, we see its cloak dirty and worn out by time, its clawed hands ready, Viktor holds the fire up towards it, threatening it.

VIKTOR: Who are you?!

7.4  
Close-up of his face as he removes the hood of the cloak, revealing his hollowed and barren appearance. His eyes are purely white. He looks like a ghoul.

CREATURE: <You are vampires. I can smell it in your blood.>  
CREATURE: <What are you doing here?>

**PAGE EIGHT**

8.1  
On Viktor, still scared but now also focussing.

VIKTOR: Hang on… I recognise that language…

8.1b  
On the creature’s legs as it walks towards us.

8.2  
Viktor speaks back at the creature, more assertive.

VIKTOR: <We not bad. We look for black liquid.>

8.3  
Close-up on the creature’s feet, stopping in their sandals.

8.4  
The creature’s head is tilted, curious.

CREATURE: <You speak my tongue, isfet.>  
CREATURE:<What did you say?>

8.5  
On Viktor and Yuuri. Viktor faces the creature, uncertain. Yuuri is turned to Viktor, whispering to him.

YUURI: How do you know his language?  
VIKTOR: When you have a few hundred years on your hands, you end up picking up a few languages here and there. Coptic is no different.   
YUURI: Four hundred is a few?!  
VIKTOR: I’ll translate.  
VIKTOR: <You know the black liquid? In our language it is called blood black.>

8.6  
Close on the creature.

KAMI: <Do you mean Blackheart?.  
KAMI: <My name is Kami.>  
KAMI: <I was the one who discovered it.>  
KAMI: <And I thought it was all gone.>

  
**PAGE NINE**

9.1  
Frontal close-up of Kami, looking straight at us with sad, empty eyes.

KAMI: <I can never seem to escape it. All I have are memories of it.>

9.2  
A very similar shot of a now much younger Kami. His eyes are smiling and full of life, his face full with a short beard and hair. We are now in the distant past biblical times.

CAPTION: When I lived out there, I was a scholar of our natural world. I wanted to find resources for the good of the kingdom.

9.3  
Wide shot of the young Kami approaching a beautiful tree on the bank of a river, the sunlight painting the sand.

CAPTION: My curiosity lead me to this tree that grew on the bank of the River Nile.

9.4  
Close on some black sap oozing out of the bark. Kami, behind it, watches with awe.

CAPTION: It produced a sap, the colour of a starless night.  
CAPTION: Enchanted by its look, I decided to try some.

9.5  
Kami drinks from a cup, his eyes wide open.

CAPTION: It was… incredible. It made me feel alive like nothing before. I was stronger, more resilient. Like I had been granted power by Ra himself.

**PAGE TEN**

10.1  
Kami lies in the shade under the tree, clutching his stomach, a flagon full of black sap spilled right next to him. In the background, a woman comes running to his aid.

CAPTION: I had begun to depend on it. It was only a matter of time before I drank too much. My insides burned with the pain, as if a great fire was consuming me from inside.  
CAPTION: But the gods has decided it was not my time to leave yet and spared me. My wife found me under the blessed tree.

10.2  
Kami lies in bed, sweating, his expression strained in pain.

CAPTION: For three days and three nights I was in agony, at one point even praying for my misery to end.  
CAPTION: When I woke up the next day...

10.3  
Kami now sits up in bed, looking down at his body.

CAPTION: I felt, as if by blessing, recovered. More than that.  
CAPTION: I felt something, like thunder through my veins.

10.4  
Night, as Kami carries a rock with no effort.

CAPTION: I did not feel tiredness, or any need to slow down and stop.

10.5  
Kami eats fish at his home with his wife and son, taking a bite as his wife watches him.

CAPTION: And though I still ate and drank, I only did it to assuage my wife’s concerns about me, for truly I had no need.

10.6  
Kami stands in the doorway of his hut, looking out at the sun-drenched sand.

CAPTION: Unfortunately, it seemed I was only to be welcomed by Hathor’s moon. Ra, it seems, only had contempt for me, as my skin burned whenever I stepped into his light.  
CAPTION: It was limiting, to say the least.  
CAPTION: But it remained the only direct side effect.

**PAGE ELEVEN**

11.1  
Kami’s young son lies in bed with his parents by his side.

CAPTION: I wondered if the procedure worked with others too, not just me. My wife had accepted to take it, and my son wanted to as well. He didn’t want to be different from me.  
CAPTION: Thank goodness I had gone through it first, so as to guide them during the process.

11.2  
Kami now kneels before Pharaoh in his palace, humbly offering him a flagon of the black sap. Pharaoh smiles, rubbing his chin. 

CAPTION: I had no doubt. This was a gift from the gods, to help us.   
CAPTION: I took this gift to our noble Pharaoh, who gratefully accepted. I was told that as I was the bringer of the gift, I must have been chosen. And like that, I had won his eternal favour.

11.3  
Wide, we see a beautiful orchard full of trees like the first one. Slaves work, extracting and transporting the sap.

CAPTION: It was decided that like me, Pharaoh would turn his family to strengthen them.  
CAPTION: Realising the further potential of it, he grew even more trees to harvest this gift.

11.4  
A tall, muscular Egyptian soldier takes a drink of the sap. Behind him other soldiers wait.

CAPTION: Pharaoh created a special variant for use for his soldiers. One that would make them the strongest soldiers in the world. But not stronger than him. Limited by the need to nourish somehow.  
CAPTION: After all, what use is a Pharaoh without the supreme power granted by Horus himself?

11.5  
A cup shows two liquids swirling together, black and red.

CAPTION: This was Midnight Mother.  
CAPTION: For it gave birth to a new life.

  
**PAGE TWELVE**

3 wide panels

12.1  
We look up at a tall, mighty, armoured figure, almost regal in how he wears his authority. Any man would feel weak in his presence. 

CAPTION: This new unit of powered soldiers was to be trained, guided, and led under the hand of Pharaoh’s greatest and most fearsome general: Vamprak.

12.2  
Vamprak leads his army of soldiers across the desert, all covered in golden chest-plates and helmets, some riding in chariots, some brandishing khopesh swords and spears, some with bows and arrows. This is a mighty army ready to fight. Underneath the armour, they all wear shawls to cover their skin.

CAPTION: His incredible soldiers came to be known as “Vamprak’s Men”. Over time, this was misheard and turned into “Vampiric Men”. Soon, they came to simply be known as Vampires.

12.3  
Devastation in the dead of night, as the military of a rival empire is destroyed and decimated by the fierce vampires, no longer wearing their skin-protecting armour.

CAPTION: And they became legendary.

  
**PAGE THIRTEEN**

13.1  
In Ancient Greece, a man draped in a purple cloth and a white tunic, a himation with gold embroidery, looks over his kingdom from his palace. We don't see his face.

CAPTION: And word had reached another empire, that would refuse to submit.  
CAPTION: The Greek Kingdom. Lead by vile creature of a man.  
CAPTION: The bane of my life: The Anax.

13.2  
Back in Egypt, a man with greek features in a robe furtively takes some Blackheart and some seeds, making sure nobody is watching.

CAPTION: I’m not sure how Blackheart reached him.  
CAPTION: I can only imagine he had sent spies to do his dirty work and uncover our secrets.

13.3  
The spy from the previous panel, now back at the Anax’s palace, offers the flagon to him, humbly bowing in the process. We see The Anax’s arms accept.

CAPTION: But either way.   
CAPTION: For the first and last time, it fell into the wrong hands.

13.4  
The Mycenaean Greek armies march out of Athens.

CAPTION: Thousands and thousands of wrong hands.

13.5  
Wide panel. A battle between the two kingdoms, but this conflict is even more bloody and devastating than the first. The two sides are equal in their might. Which is exactly why the Egyptian vampires are terrified.

CAPTION: It didn’t take long before we were beginning to suffer defeats, seemingly abandoned by Montu.

  
**PAGE FOURTEEN**

14.1  
The Anax, now wearing armour and a unique helmet that appears to cover most of his face, stands over an Egyptian vampire’s decapitated head.

CAPTION: The Anax was notorious for his appetite for destruction.  
CAPTION: Despite everything, he felt he wasn’t winning fast enough.

14.2  
The Anax watches from the background as an Egyptian farmer’s hand is cut open, spilling the blood into a bowl of Blackheart.

CAPTION: He was deranged enough to start using the very thing that gave him his power against its creators. So he started improvising with the substance, to create the ultimate vampire killer.

14.3  
The Anax’s hand, drenched in Blackheart, dripping down his arm.

CAPTION: Midnight Reaper.  
CAPTION: This was a name given to it later, after the very genocide it brought to fruition.

**PAGE FIFTEEN**

SPLASH PAGE

CAPTION: The Reaping.

Night.

Clockwise, we see the devastation across Egypt. We see Pharaoh, his face pale, his eyes dead, his skin cracked, as he lies on the sand. 

We also see Pharaoh’s family having suffered the same fate. 

General Vamprak. 

Legions and legions of soldiers. 

And Kami’s wife, tightly holding onto her son.

CAPTION: They left no one. They left no one.

CAPTION: Anyone who survived, fled. 

**PAGE SIXTEEN**

16.1  
Wide. Night. Kami rides away on horseback from the Blackheart orchard, now consumed by flames, which stand out against the sky. Kami’s cloak flies behind him in the wind.

CAPTION: I had no choice but to rid the world of this power.

16.2  
Kami rolls a giant rock up a hill.

CAPTION: The Anax ruled over my land for a century.  
CAPTION: Meanwhile, I prepared.

16.3  
Kami smacks a hammer down on a red hot metal chest plate.

CAPTION: I had eternal life, and nothing else to live for.

16.4  
Kami, now looking slightly older, larger but more worn down, observes the sharpness of a sword he’s holding up.

CAPTION: I took my time. I worshipped the gods for their favour. And every day I thought of nothing else.

16.5  
Twilight. Kami, now armoured, his sword sheathed, rides on a different horse, towards The Anax’s palace in Athens.  
  
CAPTION: And when the time came...

16.6  
Smaller panel, overlay. From behind, The Anax grips his helmet and begins to take it off.

16.7  
Same shot. We see the Anax from behind, his helmet fully removed. Short blond hair, except for where a huge burn mark covering the right side of his head.

**PAGE SEVENTEEN**

9 equal panels

17.1  
The Anax stands helmetless in his great hall, before his throne, ready to take his sword out. His appearance is brutish, weathered by time and the world. His jaw, thick and broad. The giant burn mark consumes the right side of his face.

17.2  
Reverse on Kami, climbing up the stairs, the open landscape behind him. His sword gripped tightly in his hand.

17.3  
The Anax dashes towards us, unsheathing his sword in a single swing. His unnaturally long fangs are fully bared in a furious, wide scream. His eyes deep red.

17.4  
Kami and The Anax run towards each other with full determination.

17.5  
Closer as they meet and their swords meet in the middle, a spark mid-glow hangs where the blades make contact.

17.6  
Kami swings THROUGH his opponent’s blade, the top half flying off. Kami is more determined than ever as he watches his family’s killer in the eye.

17.7  
Kami swings down once more, his blade slicing horizontally through The Anax’s neck.

17.8  
Close up on Kami’s hand grabbing the hair on his ex-opponent’s head on the floor.

17.9  
Kami holds The Anax’s severed head by the hair, its expression stuck in anger and contempt, fangs bared.

CAPTION: I did not hesitate for one second.

**PAGE EIGHTEEN**

18.1  
A procession is taking place in the city, as the new Pharaoh rides a golden chariot, surrounded by soldiers and slaves. Crowds cheer the arrival of their new king, and their newly returned kingdom.

CAPTION: With the usurper gone, I gave the Kingdom back to our people.

18.2  
A black liquid swirls, dancing with red.

CAPTION: But I wasn’t safe.  
CAPTION: The mortals were afraid. So what little Blackheart was left was put into producing Midnight Reaper. “Just in case”, they said. But what they really meant was “if any of you unearthly creatures step out of line”.

18.3  
Night. Kami wanders in the desert in his protective cloak, which floats in the night wind. He disappears amongst the dunes.

CAPTION: I was not welcome any longer.  
CAPTION: And my work here was done.  
CAPTION: My fate had etched itself into stone.  
CAPTION: Exile.

18.4  
Kami stands before an entrance of a tomb in the valley of the kings: the same one Viktor and Yuuri entered.

CAPTION: And with that, I exiled myself to the one place no-one would ever have thought or dared to look.

18.5  
Kami wanders through the entrance, down into the darkness.

CAPTION: Where I would spend lifetimes upon lifetimes...  
CAPTION: Until life itself will one day be no more...

  
**PAGE NINETEEN**

19.1  
Viktor looks down at the floor, melancholic. He too has known a similar loss. Yuuri holds Viktor’s arm, looking at him.

19.2  
Viktor looks up, a gentle and sad expression. Yuuri is now turned to Kami.

VIKTOR: <Kami, I cannot express enough how sorry I am to hear of the pain Blackheart has caused you.>  
VIKTOR: <Believe us, Blackheart has caused incredible pain for us too.>  
VIKTOR: <Yuuri is my family. He’s all I have left.>  
VIKTOR: <And Midnight Reaper will... will...>  
VIKTOR: <We just need some Blackheart.>

19.3  
On Kami.

KAMI: <Then I’m afraid you have both arrived far too late.>  
KAMI: <The only Blackheart left in Egypt by now is certainly all within my bloodstream. It’s all I feel, every day. There’s very little else left.>  
KAMI: <Even my blood has long left me.>

19.4  
Kami raises his arms, as if to indicate the whole tomb.

KAMI: <Even the air that flows in and around this tomb contains traces of Blackheart.>  
KAMI: <The air I breathe smells like the orchard on the night it burned… I have been haunted by that stench ever since.>

19.5  
On Yuuri, exhausted but realising.

YUURI: Blackheart in the air...  
YUURI: Is that why I feel so weak?  
YUURI: It’s reacting to the Midnight Reaper in my blood...

  
**PAGE TWENTY**

20.1  
Viktor, arms open as if pleading, approaches Kami. His expression is pained. 

VIKTOR: <I understand how this must sound...>  
VIKTOR: <But we only need some.>  
VIKTOR: <Just enough to make Midnight Mother.>

20.2  
Medium on Kami, tilted angle. His eyes closed in sorrow.

KAMI: <Blackheart and everything else it creates brings nothing but pain.>  
KAMI: <I cannot allow it to prosper any more than I have already allowed.>  
KAMI: <I cannot allow it to destroy any more than it already has.>

20.3  
Closer in. He looks up, his eyes serious, as if powered by the recollection of the painful memories.

KAMI: <Know that it is a promise, and I intend to keep it.>

20.4  
Profile. He opens his mouth just enough to reveal his own blunted fangs.

KAMI: <And hopefully, I’ll get to taste something in the process.>

  
**PAGE TWENTY ONE**

21.1  
Kami darts towards us, having already covered half the room, one of his claws outstretched, ready to claim his target.

21.2  
Viktor uses his forearm to push Yuuri out the way, panicking.

VIKTOR: Get down!

21.3  
Viktor pushes the torch into Kami’s face, stopping him in his track. Viktor is determined but scared.

KAMI: Argh!

21.4  
On Kami, hiding his face behind his hands, seemingly in pain.

KAMI: Fire...

21.5  
He removes his hands, revealing a slightly smirking face, unaffected except for a light searing.

KAMI: It’s been so long since anyone tried to use it on me.

**PAGE TWENTY TWO**

22.1  
Kami whacks the torch out of Viktor’s hand, Viktor takes a step back.

22.2  
Kami’s clawed hands wraps around Viktor’s neck as he pushes his head suddenly against the wall, Viktor grimaces in pain.

VIKTOR: Urgh!  
SFX: CRACK

22.3  
Yuuri pushes himself up on all fours, struggling.

22.4  
Close on Viktor pulling out the pocket knife from his back pocket, flicking it open.

22.5  
Viktor throws a flurry of knife jabs into Kami’s arm, little spurts of Blackheart bleeding out.

KAMI: Don’t resist...

22.6  
Kami throws Viktor to the floor, Viktor lands roughly, his knife falling out. The swing of Kami’s arm spills droplets of Blackheart around.

KAMI: Enough!

22.7  
Viktor’s pocket knife falls onto the ground a short distance away.

SFX: CLANG

22.7b  
Close on Yuuri’s eye widening as he notices the knife.

  
**PAGE TWENTY THREE**

23.1  
Viktor sits against the wall as Kami bringing his sharp clawed hands down on him over and over, Viktor meekly trying to defend himself by holding his arms up.

VIKTOR: Argh!

23.2  
Yuuri, angry, crawls towards the pocket knife, grabbing it.

23.3  
Close-up of Yuuri’s palm as he slashes it open with the knife, blood already trickling down.

23.4  
Kami has stopped, and looks over his shoulder, his nostrils flaring.

23.5  
Kami, at incredible speeds, grabs Yuuri by the neck, holding Yuuri’s bloodied hand with the other.

23.6  
He leans in, smelling it, watching the blood run further.

KAMI: I started drinking blood out of vice... human blood still has a hold on me to this day...

23.7  
He leans back.

KAMI: But I know this smell too well.  
KAMI: Midnight Reaper.  
KAMI: If I drink a single drop of this, it’s over for me.

23.8  
On Kami, head down as he thinks.

KAMI: Over...  
KAMI: What life exactly would be over for me?  
KAMI: All I have left are my memories.... my agony... I have nothing else.  
KAMI: I think, after who knows what time, I have achieved clarity.

**PAGE TWENTY FOUR**

24.1  
Close up as he digs his fangs into Yuuri’s hand, blood spurting everywhere.

SFX: SQUELCH

24.2  
Yuuri, shocked, tries to pull his own arm away.

YUURI: Ahhh!

24.3  
Close-up of Viktor, terrified.

VIKTOR: Yuuri!

24.3  
As Kami keeps sucking Yuuri’s blood, blood all over his mouth, his skin dries and cracks.

SFX: HISSSSS

24.4  
Kami’s whole being begins to disintegrate into ashes.

**PAGE TWENTY FIVE**

25.1  
Viktor, covered in cuts and bruises, runs over, dropping to the floor and digging through the falling dust of Kami’s former self. Panicking, desperate.

VIKTOR: No!

25.2  
Droplets of Blackheart sink into the soil.

VIKTOR (OP): No, please!

25.3  
Viktor kneels over the ground where Kami stood mere seconds ago. He holds his palms on his eyes, holding back tears.

VIKTOR: _I_ needed this....  
VIKTOR: I _needed_ it...

25.4  
Yuuri comes up behind him, his arms wrapped around and his hands linking around the front. He rests his head on the back of Viktor’s neck, his expression pained.

YUURI: Viktor…  
YUURI: It’s okay…

25.5  
Close-up, Viktor rests his hand on Yuuri’s. Just above, spots of black and red dry into Viktor’s shirt, some of them mixed together.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time, Viktor and Yuuri head to Italy, as the Second World War begins to rear its ugly head.
> 
> I'm sorry that there has been such a long hiatus. As I can imagine is the case for a lot of us, Lockdown and such has sucked a lot of energy out of me. This year I want to not let myself be caught off-guard again. In the meantime, I hope you're all looking after yourselves. It's okay if you're all feeling creatively dry, the circumstances simply aren't right for ideas and passion to flourish like they once could. You deserve to be patient with yourselves, especially as hopefully we're seeing the (very) beginning of the end of it all. Peace out!


End file.
